Friday, April 9, 2010

Supreme Court & Religion

Retiring Justice John Paul Stevens is the Supreme Court's only Protestant. What if Obama replaced him with a third Jew or seventh Catholic? The coverage of the Roberts, Alito, and Sotomayor confirmations did not press the issue of the Catholic majority. I don't see anyone in the Senate voicing opposition or even concern publicly for this lack of diversity. The GOP would be wise not to mention this since they have been increasing their share of the Catholic as well as the Jewish vote in the past decade. That doesn't mean some senator won't still say something stupid.

The smart money - really all the money - is on Solicitor General Elena Kagan with basically everyone calling her the front runner when considering her age, gender, and lack of a controversial paper trail. Check out this great analysis from Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSblog.